Sunday, 8 April 2012

2500km from Bologna to Tenerife

Can you see the shadow of La Gomera behind me?

Our second trip to Tenerife. This time we got here by car from Bologna straight to Cadiz Spain... and from there took the boat for 48hours on board. I can't say I like to be on the boat for more that 2 hours but we've done with that anyway.

The trip started in Bologna Italy. We drove along Genova-Ventimiglia-Nice-Cannes(France)-Barcelona... along the way to the south of Spain. We studied google map first before we departed. We took motorway (payment) because we couldn't afford to get lost. Franckly we spent 3 nights on the road. I don't want to get to the details for this part. It was wonderful though... I've never seen the night- sky full of stars like I've seen in the south of Spain. The temperature was quite chilly in the night but the sky was clear ..you noticed the sky above you crowded with stars!. I must admitt.. south of Spain is wonderful. Along the road I saw the palm trees.. houses and small building with Arabic influenced and some road signs written in Arabic. I regreted I didn't take any picture when we were on the road. I was exhausted I guess. When we arrived in Cadiz the following morning.. It was just on time. We couldn't find the sea port at first. We went around this Cadiz town which is actually pretty nice place. I stayed in the car though. Couldn't be bothered to do the sight seeing since I just wanted to arrive at the port. After two times drove around the town.. we decided to ask someone. Why not asked someone before you get lost? Lesson learned!. Apparantely bcoz of the port is in the middle of the city and instead of paying attention to the signs..I'd rather look for open coffee shop. In the end we arrived at the port.. did the check in.. realized we arrive two hours early.. so we went into the city center. Bought a bottle of local wine (delicious!)... some snacks and return to the port. We departed in the afternoon after all cars and caravans parked safely inside the boat.

Me with a new hairsyle (shorter and messy ;p)

Some things I noted are : The Italian motorway was expensive (obviously not for some people).. The fuel/Benzina was nearly 2 euros/litre - we all know that. The French motorway was expensive and real coffee was hard to obtained (unless if you don't mind with instant coffee from the machine vendor for 2 euros). The Spanish motorway was ok (cost and coffee was good).

On board they served you with 3 times meals (bfast/lunch/dinner) and they were very much acceptable. My husband complained though.. he's Italian after all ;p. Before arrive in Tenerife.. the boat stoped by in Lanzarote and Las Palmas (correct me if I'm wrong)... then Tenerife was last. We arrived in Santa Cruz de Tenerife... It's the main city. We didn't bother to stop by or look around but drove straight to Las Americas (where the tourist are). It was about 96km. The whole island is not that big.. you can walk it (if you out of your mind!).

We had our rental appartement in Playa Americas for a few days. After that here I am (present tense) still looking for a suitable place to sleep and to sew.